UNSOLVED HISTORY: Amelia Earhart

***A work in progress.***

"Find me if you can," was the last statement Amelia Earhart whispered to the public as she departed Miami, Florida, June 1, 1937.

Birth Name: Amelia Mary Earhart
Born: July 24, 1897
Birthplace: Atchison, Kansas
Married: 7 February, 1931 to George Putnam
Official Date of Death: 2 July, 1937 while en route from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island

Many theories surround the dissappearance of the great aviatrix ranging from ditching her twin engine Lockheed Electra into the sea from lack of fuel, to crashing on an island occupied by the Japanese and taken as the first prisoner of war at the start of WW II, to engaging in espionage against the Japanese at the request of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and then adopting on an alternate identitiy as a housewife living in New Jersey.

I will start this story where the confusion begins. On July 2, 1937, at 12:30 pm Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan have just taken off from the runway in Lae, New Guinea. They are scheduled to rendevouz with the US Coast Guard cutter ship Itasca, who was to provide radio contact, near the small mile and a half long and half mile wide Howland Island; a spec in the great expanse of the Pacific ocean and located 2,556 miles from Lae.

Earhart's plane had been stripped bare of unnecessary baggage so that she could cover the distance and still have a reserve of 274 miles worth of extra fuel. A mistake this far out to sea without help was almost certainly fatal. Along with the Itasca were three other US ships positioned along her flight path with their lights burning bright to act as visual aid.

Despite reports of favorable weather conditions, the Electra found itself amid overcast skies and intermittent rain showers. This made it difficult for Noonan to use celestial navigation, a ancient method relying on the location of the sun and other visual markers, which had been his primary source of navigation.

As dawn drew closer, Amelia contacted chief radioman Leo G. Bellarts aboard the Itasca and asked for his location. Her next scheduled time to report-in had come and gone and then finally a faint transmission was picked up around 7:42 am. The message stated, "we must be on you, but we can't see you. Fuel is running low. Unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1000 feet." The Itasca replied, but it seems the transmission could not be heard by Earhart. "We are running north and south," were the last words ever heard from Earhart. It was 8:45 am.

An extensive air and sea rescue attempt commenced immediately, but proved unsuccessful. Two weeks later on July 19, 1938, and after covering 250,000 miles of ocean, the effort was called off. The Electra, along with its pilot and navigator dissappearred without a trace.

Here is where the theories come in.

1. After several hours of trying to radio ship Itasca, theory say's she ran out of gas and ditched in ocean.

2. Captured by Japanese (first WWII prisoner of war - held as spy) and taken to Saipan. Possibly FDR used her flight as a cover up. Three native girls remember seeing a white lady pilot with a ring. Died of dysentary. Army soldier remembered seeing her Aircraft in a hangar on an island.

3. Assummed another identity as Irene ____ - housewife living in New Jersey.

Which of these theories are true? Experts on the subject are still in a fiery debate. Until we find a hard peice of evidence, such as a part of a twin engine Lockheed Electra with the identifier's XXXX, we may never know for sure.

Sixty years later we are no closer to deciphering the mystery than we were that fatefull morning in 1938.